The year’s hottest new hotel, opened October 2013 after an £85 million refit, is entered through a stone courtyard arch of a gloriously elaborate edifice (constructed with pomp as the Pearl Assurance insurance citadel). It’s the ne plus ultra of London’s modern luxury properties. A foyer sheathed entirely in brass! Songbirds by the lifts! Toilet paper as indulgently soft as puppys’ ears! Rooms are so quiet you could hear a champagne bubble pop. They’re also lush: giant 46” LCD TVs are standard, as is Italian bedding you sink into like a swimming pool. Push a button to ring down your window blinds and sip homemade sloe gin from the minibar. If it weren’t for the hard reality of the tariff, it’d be enough to sour you that the rest of the planet can’t be executed with such theatricality. The neighborhood seems at first to be too dry, but the pleasures of the British Museum and Covent Garden are both 5 minutes away.

Map

252 High Holborn, WC1 London

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

Frommer's Star Rating

1 star

Frommer's Recommended

2 stars

Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

3 stars

Frommer's Exceptional

About Our System

Frommer's only recommends things we think you will enjoy and that will
make your trip both authentic and unforgettable. Our experts personally appraise each choice
in terms of their overall enthusiasm for it.

Our star system does not denote hotel amenities but it does denote the
level of our approval. A place with one star is worth a look—after all, it made the list.
A rating of two stars means it's excellent, and three stars is the highest praise we give.